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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dire Bare" data-source="post: 9151398" data-attributes="member: 18182">I realize this is an ongoing conversation here, and it's not just [USER=7033171]@Retros_x[/USER], but . . . "default" and "implied" do not have the same meaning. Not in the dictionary, and not when referring to fantasy settings for the D&D game.I don't like the word "default" when talking about D&D settings, but what this refers to is the official setting of the core game. The BECMI edition of D&D had the "Known World" (later to be known as Mystara) as the default setting. When 3rd Edition launched, Greyhawk was the default setting, although later that changed. During the run of 4th Edition, the Nentir Vale "points of light" setting was the default. No other edition of D&D has had a default setting.An implied setting is when there is NO official, default setting, but the game comes with many setting tropes and expectation baked into the rules. EVERY D&D edition has had an implied setting. How does magic work? Does the color of a dragon's scales correspond to it's alignment? What's the difference between a high, gray, and wood elf?The D&D implied setting overlaps strongly with Greyhawk, the Realms, and other "generic" fantasy settings developed for the game. But the two words do mean different things. In a two-circle Venn diagram comparing the D&D implied setting with the World of Greyhawk . . . the central, overlapping section would be huge! But the World of Greyhawk is not the implied or default setting for D&D 5th Edition.Most of us are fine with D&D having an implied setting, as it has had one since Day 1 way back in '74. And since Day 1, the game has explicitly encouraged players to modify that implied setting (and the rules) as they see fit. Nothing's changed there nearly 50 years later.The 2014 core books have referenced ALL of D&D past settings, and leaned into the long-standing implied setting developed since the White Box. The Forgotten Realms has been the default setting for most of the adventure books, but not the game itself. And the Realms plays very nicely with the implied setting of the game, of course. Nothing is changing here either.The 2024 books are leaning even more into that implied setting, especially the multiverse aspect of it. That's a SLIGHT shift in focus, doesn't make "Planescape" the default setting, or really even change things in any meaningful way.All of this angst, this sturm and drang . . . . . you'd think after a couple of decades of online fandom, I'd be used to "the sky is falling" segment of our fandom, but . . . . Pelor's Beard! Y'all just need to relax. D&D is going to be fine next year, just fine.</blockquote>

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